<p>beefs- No dierespect to U. Chicago. Great school, and math dept, but one of the main reasons I put UCLA ahead of your school, as well as othersis a guy called Terrance Tao. Fields Medal winner in '06, and the brightest mathematical mind ofour time. Prof's like him make an incredible difference, and draws the best math minds around to study under him, and his fellow faculty.</p>
<p>Saxonthebeach6- As mentioned in my reply to beefs post, U. Chicago, and Cal Berkely have great math programs, but the reason I put UCLA ahead of them is because of Terrance Tao. Fields Medal winner in '06, and arguably the brightest mathematical mind of our time. Having him as a prof. boosts their program automatically, because great minds want to study under him and the rest of the faculty. Even if he teaches 1 0r 2 classes a semester, just his presence is huge.</p>
<p>As well known Georgetown is a great school, but props for math not sure.</p>
<p>How can a school be judged on their undergrad math program? The size of classes, the faculty, the course requirements? I would think those super great mathematicians that are winning awards and doing research would teach grad students, while undergrads would get a smart TA.</p>
<p>NRC ranking:</p>
<p>1 Princeton 4.94
2 Cal Berkeley 4.94
3 MIT 4.92
4 Harvard 4.90
5 Chicago 4.69
6 Stanford 4.68
7 Yale 4.55
8 NYU 4.49
9 Michigan 4.23
10 Columbia 4.23
11 Cal Tech 4.19
12 UCLA 4.14</p>
<p>Gourman:</p>
<p>Princeton
UC Berkeley
Harvard
MIT
U Chicago
Stanford
NYU
Yale
Wisconsin Madison
Columbia
Michigan Ann Arbor
Brown
Cornell
UCLA</p>
<p>US News:</p>
<ol>
<li> Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5.0</li>
<li> Harvard University (MA) 4.9
Princeton University (NJ) 4.9
Stanford University (CA) 4.9
University of California–Berkeley 4.9</li>
</ol>
<h1>times in top 5:</h1>
<p>Princeton - 3
Harvard - 3
MIT - 3
Berkeley - 3
Chicago - 2
Stanford - 1</p>
<p>So it's pretty clear that MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley, and Chicago are the top 5 for math, but it'd be unfair to leave Stanford out (so close multiple times -- and beaten by Chicago by .01 in the NRC ranking).</p>
<p>UCLA isn't quite on par with those.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Fields Medal winner in '06, and arguably the brightest mathematical mind of our time.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Another of the Fields Medal winners (Andrei Okounkov) in '06 was an associate professor at Berkeley and instructor at U Chicago, at different times. But letting one such fact influence your 'ranking' is nonsensical.</p>
<p>Princeton has Andrew Wiles, so they pwn all.</p>
<p>Bradley, Berkeley's math faculty is pretty well renowned...in fact, we even have one Fields Medalist teaching! Many of my friends took multivariable calc with Vaughan Jones, a winner from 1990.</p>
<p>In any event, it's pretty foolish to rank a school's entire academic department based on one professor...</p>
<p>Never said that. Simply put with Terrance Tao it enhances the rest of their faculty, and student body studying math. Look, U. Chicago, and Berkely are great programs and have great prof's, but in the bigger picture not to start a new thread Princeton, MIT, and Harvard clearly stand alone at top. We can argue all day about how good other schools, such as UCLA, Cal. Tech., U. Chicago, and Berkely are but they are distanced somewhat by the TOP 3 in the northeast. Great discussion.</p>
<p>Does everyone (or anyone) agree on the proper measure of "best undergrad school for math"? How do we measure the impact of a top grad school prof on undergrads? In addition to undergrad origins of math PhDs, what other objective measures of undergrad quality are available? Can it move beyond "my grad prof is better than your grad prof"?</p>
<p>One slightly random thing you can look at are the results of the Putnam Math Competition. Results for this year just came out (I'm not sure if/where you can find them online).</p>
<p>**Personal plug: I'm a math major at Rice and our faculty is AWESOME.</p>
<p>
[quote]
but in the bigger picture not to start a new thread Princeton, MIT, and Harvard clearly stand alone at top. We can argue all day about how good other schools, such as UCLA, Cal. Tech., U. Chicago, and Berkely are but
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Clearly you're the only one who thinks that. Every ranking puts Berkel*e*y with Princeton, MIT, and Harvard. U Chicago is right next to them too.</p>
<p>Maybe. The point of this thread is the list the top math schools, and that what everyone has done. I listed my opinion as well as everyone who has posted. Bottom line is all are great schools.</p>
<p>A good indicator is the results of the Putnam contest. You'll see two Canadian schools are actually fifth and sixth. </p>
<p>Most Top-5 Finishes:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Toronto</li>
<li>Waterloo</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Chicago, WUSL, Yale
etc...
William</a> Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</li>
</ol>
<p>Brown University (Applied Math)
California Institute of Technology
Columbia University
Cornell University
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
New York University (Applied Math)
Princeton University
Stanford University
University of California-Berkeley
University of California-Los Angeles
University of Chicago
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Yale University</p>
<p>Princeton is the best school for Math in the US. Cal Berkeley, MIT, Harvard, NYU and Wisconsin-Madison are also good choices.</p>
<p>Math departments ranked according to where Fields Medalists completed their undergraduate studies. Keep in mind that just 9 Medalists earned their undergraduate degrees in Mathematics at US Universities:</p>
<p>Harvard University: 2
Columbia University: 1
New College of Florida: 1
Princeton University: 1
University of Maryland-College Park: 1
University of Michigan-Ann arbor: 1
Williams College: 1
Yale University: 1</p>
<p>Math Departments according to where other award winners completed their undergraduate studies:</p>
<p>Abel Prize:
New York University: 1
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor: 1
Yale University: 1</p>
<p>Wolf Prize:
Princeton University: 3
New York University: 2
Harvard University: 1
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor: 1
Yale University: 1</p>
<p>Alexandre,</p>
<p>Although your criterion is valid, I would say that, when it comes to Field Medals or Nobel Prizes, the place where the awardee got his/her PhD degree and the places where he/she worked after graduating are far more important than the institution where he/she completed his/her undergraduate studies.</p>
<p>Bruno, that may be true, but for a high school senior looking for an undergrad institution (the OP, e.g.) it's irrelevant. Such students are more likely searching for the undergrad schools that best produce viable PhD candidates, i.e., schools that teach to that level, providing a solid basis for moving to the next level.</p>
<p>Bruno, my lists in posts 56 and 57 aren't really intended to prove anything. They are just statistical eye candy. Cal, Caltech, Chicago and Stanford did not produce a signle winner and yet, all four of those universities have INCREDIBLE math departments.</p>